Sunday, 30 December 2012

Do you remember me making all these Christmas Trees using the Tim Holtz rosette dies? Well, I was giving them as presents for various family and friends, but I wanted to make them a lickle schnazzy with their own custom made boxes instead of wrapping them with tissue paper.

So a little fiddling with my Silhouette machine and some trial 'n' errors and these are what I came up with...

They were all cut from smooth white cardstock and then I placed DI re-inkers into mini misters with some water and perfect pearls. I chose the colours of DI re-inkers and sprayed the boxes to match the trees which were going to be inside. I then folded the boxes and inked the edges and then decorated the reverse with either Making Memories trees or glittered TH lamp posts. When I was spraying the boxes, I placed the card Snippets underneath the boxes I was spraying, so that they would pick up some of the ink. Then using the SU tag stamps I stamped the tags using various DIs and embossed with clear embossing powder. I then punched the tags using the SU tag punch and stamped the word Joy using a Hero Arts stamp. Another tag was cut to add the name of the recipient, some Snippets of ribbon and hey presto I had some swish looking tree boxes. And a bonus is I can enter these into the Playground, assuming it is open!!

I have delayed posting these until after Christmas as I did not want any recipients seeing them before the day!

I hope you have all had a lovely Christmas. I cannot believe it is New Year's Eve tomorrow. Has anyone got any plans to celebrate bringing the New Year?

Thanks for popping by. I know I have been a little quiet on the blogging front but it is Christmas.

Happy New Year to you all and thank you ALL for sharing my crafting fun and adventures throughout the year.

Friday, 28 December 2012

After I retired, my wife insisted that I accompany her on her trips to Target (for UK insert with Wilkinsons!).

Unfortunately, like most men, I found shopping boring and preferred to get in and get out. Equally unfortunate, my wife is like most women - she loves to browse.

Yesterday my dear wife received the following letter from the local Target:

Dear Mrs. Harris

Over the past six months, your husband has caused quite a commotion in our store. We cannot tolerate this behavior and have been forced to ban both of you from the store. Our complaints against your husband, Mr Harris , are listed below and are "documented by our video surveillance cameras":

1. June 15: He took 24 boxes of condoms and randomly put them in other people's carts when they weren't looking.

2. July 2: Set all the alarm clocks in Housewares to go off at 5-minute intervals.

3. July 7: He made a trail of tomato juice on the floor leading to the women's restroom.

4. July 19: Walked up to an employee and told her in an official voice, 'Code 3 in Housewares Get on it right away'. This caused the employee to leave her assigned station and receive a reprimand from her Supervisor that in turn resulted with a union grievance, causing management to lose time and costing the company money.

5. August 4: Went to the Service Desk and tried to put a bag of M&Ms on layby..

6. August 14: Moved a 'CAUTION - WET FLOOR' sign to a carpeted area.

7. August 15: Set up a tent in the camping department and told the children shoppers they could come in if they would bring pillows and blankets from the bedding department to which twenty children obliged.

8. August 23: When a clerk asked if they could help him he began crying and screamed, 'Why can't you people just leave me alone?' EMTs were called.

9. September 4: Looked right into the security camera and used it as a mirror while he picked his nose.

10. October 3: Darted around the Store suspiciously while loudly humming the 'Mission Impossible' theme.

11. October 6: In the auto department, he practiced his 'Madonna look' by using different sizes of funnels.

12. October 18: Hid in a clothing rack and when people browsed through, yelled 'PICK ME! PICK ME!'

13. October 22: When an announcement came over the loud speaker, he assumed the fetal position and screamed 'OH NO! IT'S THOSE VOICES AGAIN!

14. Took a box of condoms to the checkout clerk and asked where is the fitting room?

And last, but not least:

15. October 23: Went into a fitting room, shut the door, waited awhile, and then yelled very loudly, 'Hey! There's no toilet paper in here.'

Wednesday, 26 December 2012

I hope you all had a wonderful day yesterday and Santa brought you all you wished for! I was a very lucky girl yesterday, no inky goodies but some pennies to buy some more stash!

As well as it being Boxing Day today, it is also What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday with the lovely Julia so time to show my desk! As it is the last of 2012 I could not resist joining in!

I know this is not my usual desk, I am sitting in the lounge at the coffee table. It is a long standing custom (since I was a lickle girl in fact) that on Boxing Day I start a new project, whether it is cross-stitch, knitting or even a new book. This year's Boxing Day new project is to start a piece of lace. A Wedding Garter in fact for my Nephew's Fiance Michelle. They are getting married in May and I have been given the honour of making the Wedding Garter. Michelle has left the choice of colours to me and I am going with the traditional colours of white with blue. First of all I need to wind the 50 or so pairs of bobbins and as you can see I am about a quarter of the way through.

Also on the coffee table is an assortment of pressies, mostly Mr Hettie's including the Jelly Bellies and Thorntons toffee. The cup and plate are from my friend Emma and are the latest Portmerion Christmas design. I have collected Portmerion since before I was married and it went in my "bottom drawer"! Told you I was a bit of a traditionalist. You can also see Dobby pearing over the table. He had a fabulous Christmas with a stocking to himself including a pair of antlers and a new squeaky turkey!

And just for Jan, I am sharing a photo of our bed on Christmas Eve complete with it's Christmas quilt on there. I keep trying to encourage LLJ to take up quilting as she is a fabulous needlewoman. It is rather nice snuggling under your own quilt. This particular one was made at the quilting group I used to be a member of. I made the centre square and then it was passed around the group for the various rounds to be put on before being given back to me to bind and quilt. It is one of my favourite quilts and I love to get it out at Christmas as it holds many happy memories.

Right, that is it for today. I need to get back to my bobbin winding and then I can start to make Michelle's garter. Don't forget to go to Julia's blog to see some other desks from around the globe!

Hugs for you all and if I don't visit you before then have a wonderful New Year. Mr Hettie and I are off to a Hogmanay with lots of fun and dancing and I am very much looking forward to it!

Monday, 24 December 2012

I am posting once more before the Big Day to wish all my Blogging Friends a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy, Healthy and Crafting New Year. I want to thank all my Followers and Visitors for popping by and leaving such kind comments and encouragement. I have had a ball blogging this last year and am looking forward to continuing next year.

Before I go I thought I would share some of my last cards I have made for family and friends....

My Mum and Dad's.

My Buddy Mandy and her family's.

My Sister and her family's. You may notice that the recent 12 Tags of Christmas have had an influence on these!

My Nephew and his Fiance's.

And last but not least, my Wonderful Hubby's. My first easel card too! I managed to sneak the Toy Soldier die in to the house without him seeing it so he does not realise I have it! I made a similar one for my Brother and his Son and Partner. My Brother was a serving Soldier for some years!

Of course I shall be entering these into the Playground as there are lots of Snippets used!

Well, I just want to wish you all a fabulous Christmas and Great 2013! Off to see where Santa is now as I am following him on Norad!

It is nearly Christmas and I think I have finally finished making Christmas pressies and cards and what food and drink we do not have we have to do without! Still the finishing of Christmas decorations, our Christmas cake needs decorating (no icing this year, just fruit) and visiting family to go but we still have all day Christmas Eve.

I want to share with you some happy news. As some of you know we lost Myfanwy last month after the firework party held by our neighbours stressed her out and she went into shock. Just before she shuffled off this mortal coil we had an e-mail from the Welfare Trust asking us if we could rehome some more exbattery hens. Upon Myfanwy's demise we decided to go ahead and adopt some more girls.

When we collected them they were in a very sorry state, moreso than the girls we had last October and I have resisted temptation to introduce them to you to give them chance to settle and build up their strength. Well, four weeks have now passed and they are coming on in leaps and clucks so as it is Christmas I would like to introduce you to my new girls......

Say Hello to Miss Diane (bottom left), Caitlin (centre and smallest) and Mrs A (the darker girl at the back). Some of my regular followers may recognise who two of our girls have been named after!

These new girls have settled in pretty well and are adapting to their new surroundings. Here is Miss Diane giving orders for more hay! All three are chatterboxes! Just right for the Playground!

And Caitlin likes to have a drink!

And Mrs A up to mischief as usual!

And here is Jessie, one of the girls we adopted last year. You may recall that she was the poorly one of last year's girls. She has blossomed well, despite the ground looking rather wet!

Hettie looking a little shabby having moulted very recently If you can catch hold of her she feels a little like a hedgehog with her new bristley coat!

Tracey has picked up well but is very often causing trouble and squabbling with Ziva.

Jessie, Ziva and a little clip of Betty. I suspect they had spotted some more corn somewhere!

And this was a bit of a surprise to us. This granite rock has fallen down the bank and come through the back of the run. Thank goodness Hubby had dug the stakes in so well and it is holding the weight of the rock. The wire has a hole in it but fortunately the girls don't seem to be able to get through and the electric tape is still working. It was not there when I let the girls out in the morning, but it was here when I got home from the work's do! Had it been 30ft to the left it could have come through the bedroom ceiling! Phew!

Well, time for bed said Zebedee. I have some cards to show you tomorrow including Hubby's.

TTFN. Don't forget to write your letters to Santa! I haven't quite decided what I want in my stocking yet!

Wednesday, 19 December 2012

Wow! The last Wednesday before Christmas. I cannot join in on WOYWW today as there is far too much on my desk that I don't want peeps to see, as I do have a few friends who may peep and see something I don't want them to. I will join next week for the "after" shot!!

I thought I would show you two cards I have recently made using my lovely new Artistic Stamper stamps that were crying out to be stamped. I needed to make a Thank You card for a very dear friend of mine and a Birthday card for Hubby's cousin. I used the same idea but with slight variations.

I used Papermania papers which were in a pack I had some time ago, some Snippets of black cardstock which I ran through the TH embossing folder and then brushed over with Treasure Gold wax. I punched some more cardstock with my EK Success punch, added some lace and used Kaisercraft flowers. Yep! I do sometimes use bought flowers instead of making them.

Some of the flowers were stamped with my TH text stamp. The mini tags were made using another TH die and stamped with Docrafts and SU stamps. I popped brads in the centre of the flowers and hey presto I had a pair of nice cards. The inks used are Coffee Archival and Distress Inks in Vintage Photo. It was very refreshing not to have any glitter on them!

Thanks for popping by in amongst the mayhem of pre-Christmas. I am hoping that by Friday night I will have finished all Christmas projects so that I can finish decorating the house and then relax over the weekend. Yeah right!!

Monday, 17 December 2012

Today I have finished the last of Funkie Junkie's 12 Tags of Christmas. I can hardly believe that when I discovered this Challenge I would complete all 12 tags, but I have. OK so I still have Christmas cards to make, some Christmas presents and gift bags. The decorations are not up either, but I shall be starting on those this evening, and frankly the decorations don't normally go up until the weekend before Christmas anyway so they are not really late!

Isn't it wonderful with all the gold flourishes on there? Here is my take on Linda's tag.....

Like Linda I cannot seem to get the light very well to capture the richness of the golds and reds but this is the nearest I could get. As on most of my tags, I die cut a tag using SU Vanilla cardstock and my TH tag die. However, I wanted a smaller tag as well as a larger tag. So I made a thick card tag and drew around it, on SU Vanilla, with a Quilter's Wonder Wheel which adds a quarter inch to the original card die, which I then cut out. The first tag I had made I trimmed about an inch (I did it by eye so not exact) off the bottom edge and about quarter inch off either side and then trimmed the corners back in. Once I was happy with the sizes I set to work on the stamping and decorating.

The larger tag was stamped with TH embossing ink with my favourite TH flourish stamp and embossed with gold embossing powder. Once cooled I used Fired Brick and Festive Berries Distress Inks to get a red I was happy with, as well as some Snippets of cardstock for the Roses. Once I was happy with the red I spritzed and flicked with water and then dried them with the heat gun.

The smaller tag was stamped using my Hero Arts Holly stamp, again using embossing ink and gold powder. I edged both tags with Gathered Twigs DI. Then I set about making the leaves. I inked some more Snippets with Pine Needles and Forest Moss DI and dried them with the heat gun.

I die cut the green leaves and the "Roses" using the TH Pine Cone die. Using my glue gun I made the Roses. The gold Ivy leaves were some Christmas decorations I bought yesterday at the local hardware store who were selling off Christmas decorations 2 for 1. As soon as I saw them I knew they would come in somewhere. I do tend to pick Ivy things up because I live at Ivy Cottage! Once the Roses were dried I inked the edges with GT DI and sprayed with Heirloom Gold Perfect Pearls mist.

The Noel was actually cut by my friend Mandy when I was at her house a few weeks ago. Her Vagabond had died so I took my trusty Big Shot so that she could make some diecuts for her to make Christmas cards etc. I pretended to "steal" one of these die cuts as I do not have this die (another one for my list). I love the richness of the red glitter cardstock. Don't worry, Mandy did let me have it and I have been dying to use it on one of these tags. I have backed the Noel with some more of the lace which I have used on several other tags. Thanks Di for giving me this at The Crop!

The bottom of the tag was cut using the TH On the Edge Die Ornate. I cut another with a Snippet of gold glitter card left over from the lamppost I made the other die and layered it below the tag. I threaded the lace with gold ribbon but knew I wanted some more gold to back the lace, so I used the "negative" of the Ornate cut!

All that was left was for me to put all the elements together and there was my tag finished! I showed Hubby and his response was "nothing like going out with a flourish"! Well it is my final 12 Tags of Christmas for 2012 and this is the first time I have ever completed 12 tags at Christmas. Thanks so much Linda for running this Challenge and Good Luck to all the peeps who have joined in. If they have had as much fun as I have making these then Hurrah! There are some stunning projects entered into this Challenge so why not take a peek!

I am also entering this into the Playground on account of the Snippets as well as Hels' Sunday Stampers as the theme this week is Holly and Ivy. Great timing as I haven't entered anything with Hels for some time.

I just want to thank you Bloggers for calling by and leaving such kind comments. I have had a ball with these and I will be ready a little earlier for 2013's 12 Tags of Christmas (hoping Linda will be running it then!).

I love the cream and brown colours on here and the holly on the rosette, as well as the resist technique with the TH Flourish stamp. I have to say that the resist is a particular favourite of mine and the flourish stamp is one I turn to often.

So here is my take......

I cut my tag using my TH die and SU Vanilla cardstock. I stamped and embossed the tag with the TH flourish stamp with Ranger embossing ink and clear embossing powder. For the background colour I used a mixture of Vintage Photo DI and a new DI that was still wrapped in cellophane but was crying out to be used........Gathered Twigs. Once inked I gave the tag a spritz and flick with water!

I die cut the two small Rosette pieces from SU Vanilla cardstock and as I had the glue gun to hand I made up both Rosettes with the intention of placing the larger one in my Embellishment tin. I die cut several Holly pieces from the TH Lamppost die and edged them with GT DI as well as the Rosettes. I wanted to put something a little different in the centre of the Holly wreath and whilst I was thinking what to put in there I came across a pack of wooden embellishments I had recently bought, but not used, so it was time to break the packet. I edged all three Angels with GT DI and adhered them to the Rosette and the top edge of the tag.

For the bottom part of the tag I had fortunately cut some of these shapes when I was at my friend's house the other day, from Snippets of chipboard, I adhered a piece of SU Vanilla and stamped the See Dees NOEL stamp with GT DI and embossing powder. Again using GT DI I inked the edges of the NOEL before adhering it to the tag with some of the cream lace I used on Tag 10 behind it.

I cut the strip at the bottom using a Snippet of SU Vaniila using an EK Success punch and added some TH brads to the centres of each of the "stars". When I had completed it I decided to mount the Holly and Angel onto the larger rosette. Once it was all adhered I sprayed the tag with Pinecone Glimmer Mist.

Well folks, this is the penultimate tag. Only Tag 12 to go. I have until midnight tomorrow to enter the last tag into the Challenge for a chance to win the Challenge, which is sponsored by The Funkie Junkie Boutique. I have used some Snippets so I will be putting it into the Playground. (I keep all cuts of the SU cardstock in their packet as I am so frugal with that cardstock! I am going to have to find a new supplier of SU products as I am nearly out of that cardstock, having used it on nearly all my 12 tags!) I am going to decorate the tree in the Treehouse with my (hopefully) 12 tags!!

Thanks for popping by and I would love to read your comments. Off for a lickle blog hop of my own now so hopefully catch up with you later.

Time is getting closer to the Big Day and also the deadline for Funkie Junkie's 12 Tags of Christmas Challenge! It is just as well I joined in this year with Sandra's Rudolph Day every month as I would normally be panicking now trying to get Christmas cards made. However, I do have some cards to make but just the Family cards and I have until Christmas Eve to get those complete!

So here is Linda's Tag 10 for the 12 Tags of Christmas...

I loved this tag as soon as I saw it as it reminds me of a quilt I made some years ago and no doubt it will be hanging up again by the end of this week. It is a red brick quilt with "snow" on the top and I made it to represent the Chimney that Santa will be coming down! I also love the Vintage image on the bauble but I had a stamp crying out to be inked up for this. Here is mine.......

Again I have made the tag with SU Vanilla cardstock and TH die. I have used the TH Embossing folder of brick using Red Brick Distress Ink and I edged it with Vintage Photo DI. I don't own the "snow" folder but I improvised by cutting some out on the Silhouette and covering it with Rock Candy Distress Stickles. Before attaching any of the embellishments to the tag I gave it a spritz of Perfect Pearls mist in Forever Red.

The two boys image is from Artistic Outpost and was stamped in Coffee Archival Ink. The coloured parts were coloured with Copics and the buttons have had a little Glossy Accents on them to make them stand out. The background to the image and the Holly leaves is a Snippet of paper that I was playing with when I first had Alcohol Inks and was experimenting with cartridge paper. The stamped image on there is Hero Arts Holly. Once I had joined these two pieces I Cropadiled a hole and added a little burlap.

The Merry Christmas piece is a K&Co chipboard piece. I decided to use some Rosettes that I had made for another project rather than a Poinsettia just because I liked the look and the shimmering of Perfect Pearls on there. The ribbon behind the Rosette flower was given to me by a Lovely Lady. To cut the Holly leaves, I had a little brainwave. None of my stamp Holly leaves were big enough but I remembered I had a holly cookie cutter, so I inked it with ink, "stamped" the reverse of the paper, cleaned the cookie cutter straight away and then trimmed the image, making the spikes more spikey!!

So again, thanks to Linda for giving me the chance to make this tag and for the wonderful inspiration. Also, thanks to The Funkie Junkie Boutique for sponsoring the Challenge. I am also entering this piece into the CC101 Challenge for "Vintage", as well as the Playground for the Snippets used.

Right, Tag No 11 needs to be done today, whilst helping Hubby with the bathroom job! I cannot wait for that to be done so I can light the fire!!

I was on a bit of a roll last night and actually made 2 tags though I wanted to ensure this was all adhered securely before I moved it to take it downstairs and take some piccies. So without further ado...

I took some SU Vanilla cardstock and cut it with my TH Tag die. Then using an Inkadinkado stamp and Vermillion Archival Ink (AI) I stamped then clear embossed the Santa image, heat setting it with my heat tool. I then made a mask for the stamped image and swooshed some Bundled Sage Distress Stain (DS) before adding some Vintage Photo and Pine Needles Distress Ink (DI). I then splashed some water over the tag, just cos I like the look! I masked off the the word Believe on TH Silhouettes stamp and inked with black AI. I then stamped the background with Pine Needles DI and Black Soot DI using a mixture of TH and Barn Door Stamps. I inked the edges with Vintage Photo DI.

After drying with my heat tool I inked the TH Holly leaves with Pine Needles DI and clear embossed it. I cut the Poinsettia using some felt (the snowflakes were already printed on there), using my TH Tattered Florals die. I added some red jute which had been sent to to me in my package from The Funkie Junkie Boutique recently. The snowflake was also in the package and I thought looked it looked perfect on the Poinsettia along with a wooden star button tied with some burlap string.

Some ribbons, bells and another piece of burlap string and some TH Forever Red Perfect Pearls mist.

Thanks for calling by. Hopefully I shall be able to find time to make the other three tags this weekend. Unfortunately our central heating pump has been playing up recently so we bought a new one last weekend and Hubby is fixing it tomorrow, but it involves removing half the bathroom wall of tongue and groove, a lot of swearing and cups of coffee. No doubt the bathroom will need repainting then and all before Christmas!

When I looked at this tag, and after I had said "Wow", I looked carefully at the elements Linda had used. The cottage reminded me of my own home (except mine is not wooden and at the moment is not, sadly, covered in snow) and the word "Holidays" reminded me of somewhere that Hubby and I have spent holidays at Christmas where it does snow from now until the end of February. Any regulars to my blog will know that this is Prague.

So here is my take on Linda's tag.....

I have used the kraft glassine with Ranger Ink Refresher technique, then swooshed with Bundled Sage DS and some Bronze DS and then inked with Vintage Photo DI. I left it all to dry whilst I ate my tea and came back and finished drying it with my heat tool.

The Charles Bridge scene is a Darkroom Door stamp as is Praha and the clock. I stamped the scene and the Praha onto Snippets of SU Vanilla CS using Coffee Archival ink, heated them with the heat tool and on the Bridge scene, using an embossing pen I went over in places and added some schparkly embossing powder to give the feeling of crisp snow. (I notice the lamppost on the Image looks squiffed but I assure you it isn't.It may be the angle of the card underneath as it is only on the top edge??) Then I edged both images with VP DI.

Then I moved onto the background of the tag and stamped the clock image from DD, using firstly Bronze DS then secondly Black Archival ink. I found another coffee cup protector and swooshed some Bronze DS over it, tore it to fit the image and then edged with VP DI and mounted the Bridge image on it.

I then cut a TH Lamppost twice out of glitter cardstock, once with gold (to get the effect of light) and again in black for the post itself. I cut the Holly out of K&Co cardstock, adhered the holly onto the lamppost and adhered some red beads onto the holly.

The Christmas Memories embellishment is a K&Co one and the final touches were the TH Snow Tissue Tape and the ribbon, which incidentally I bought in Prague when we were there in February.

So that ends Tag 7. Only 4 more to go, one of which I will post later (hopefully). I am off out to a Christmas Party tonight with Scottish Dancing friends, so need to go and get showered and dressed up to go.

Friday, 14 December 2012

One December day we found an old straggly cat at our door.She was a sorry sight.

Starving, dirty, smelled terrible, skinny, and hair all matted down..We felt sorry for her so we put her in a carrier and took her to the vet.

We didn't know what to call her so we named her 'Pussycat.'

The vet decided to keep her for a day or so.

He said he would let us know when we could come and get her.My husband (the complainer) said, 'OK, butdon't forget to wash her, she stinks.'He reminded the vet that it was his WIFE (me) that wanted the dirty cat, not him.My husband and my Vet don't see eye to eye.

The vet calls my husband'El-Cheap-O', and my husband calls the vet'El-Charge-O'.They love to hate each other and constantly 'snipe' at one another,

with my husband getting in the last word on this particular occasion.The next day my husband had an appointment with his doctor,

who is located in the same building, next door to the vet.The GP's waiting room and office was full of people waiting to see the doctor.

A side door opened and the vet leaned in - he had obviously seen my husband arrive.He looked straight at my husband and in a loud voice said, 'Your wife's pussy doesn't stink any more.